Father Tim Lemlin
This might not be an earth quaking discovery. We might register this as true. Yet, most of us don't live relationally most of the time. Our way of life usually is more self-centered than God-centered. We give verbal credence to the belief that we are made in God's image but often that's all. This belief has little or no effect upon our way of life. We live a life in which God is a part, rather than a life in which God is the whole in which we participate. Maybe this is why it is easier for the bread and wine to become the body and blood of Jesus than it is for us.
When you receive, you hear the words: "The body of Christ, the blood of Christ," and you accent, you are not simply agreeing that the bread and wine are the body and blood of Jesus, you are also acknowledging that you are the body and blood of Jesus. You are relational as God is relational. This is who you are.
Many internal and external forces work against our living this awareness. Selfishness is never ever very far away from any of us. Laws and statutes can point us in the right direction, but they don't have the power to transform us. Only love can transform us and love is relational.
St. Paul came away from his encounter with the risen Lord knowing that he was loved. Even when he was seeking to do harm to the one who loved him, he was still loved. He couldn't break the relationship that God had established with him - even when he became a murderer.
We are no different. We have several examples in our world today of selfishness and love. The by-product of selfishness is revenge. (You have done this to me. I must retaliate by doing something worse to you.) We see this in the Middle East where Israelis and Palestinians commit one violent act after another. We see it in our efforts against terrorism where we use violence trying to purchase peace.
The by-product of love is forgiveness. (You have done something to me that requires punishment. I choose to forgive you.) We see this in South Africa where Nelson Mandela, a political prisoner for twenty-seven years, and his black people choose to forgive. The commission that he and others created gave notorious violators of human rights a choice: tell the whole truth or face prosecution. Once the truth was told most went free. These choices (to tell the truth and to forgive) prevented a racial bloodbath.
When we approach to receive communion today, let our accent include the acknowledgement that I am the body of Christ, that I am the blood of Christ, and that we all participate in the love of God who forgives us.
